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w10-1today at 12:21 AM3 repliesview on HN

Paper title: Disinhibitory signaling enables flexible coding of top-down information in cortical networks

(should be qualified as in-silico visual systems)

Method: replicate fMRI findings of visual abstraction using simple networks to model what's essential

Gist: in tasks 'Inhibitory neurons that suppress other inhibitory neurons seem to pass key information from the “thinking” part of the system to the “sensing” component of the system'

I've heard the same for motor control: it's not that the cortex aims for one action; it aims for a bunch, but most are inhibited. (You see this in chaotic movement when inhibition fails).

So it's not really "think and see" but "what you see when you're doing a task".

(There's some analogy in there wrt (AI) exuberance effacing selectivity in investment decisions...)


Replies

agumonkeytoday at 2:56 AM

I'm very curious about inhibition failures in brain areas, especially between visual perception and motor control. I'm no neurologist but your brain seems to generate a lot of imaginary interpretation when sensing the visual field, but sometimes there are short circuit like failure that leak those potential imaginary futures with you current real self (leading to strange uncoordinated or overlapping motor control signals)

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MajorTakeawaytoday at 6:09 AM

See I did what I saw when doing a task like grabbing for my Guinness to take a swig and ended up hitting my laptop with the bottle when I brought the bottle to my body.

Maybe I have a bit of inhibition going on there.

milleramptoday at 2:11 AM

"inhibition fails" reminded me of this passage from Fear and Loathing.

"Ah, devil ether. It makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel... total loss of all basic motor skills. Blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue. The mind recoils in horror, unable to communicate with the spinal column."

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